Warm Fuzz From Sonic Youth ... Concert Review

NIGHTLIFE

When Sonic Youth brought the white noise to the Tower Theater in Upper Darby last Friday, the band also brought along a few warm fuzzies, which were served-up family-values style .

The Sonics early '80s reputation pegged the Downtown New York art-noise band as dangerous egghead savages. However, the Tower show revealed a kinder, gentler, yet somehow more powerful, Sonic Youth. Standing before a swirling hypno-patterned backdrop, the band drew liberally from the more accessible material of its last three albums. Sonic Youth's earlier tendency towards amphetamine thrash and atonal skronk was replaced by nuance and subtle aural shading. Yet, when the band kicked into feedback-smeared, crotch-grabbing riffs, Sonic Youth roared like a blast furnace.

Sonic Youth seemed to be wearing its heart on its sleeve -- as much an avowedly anarchistic, non-conformist, stick-it-to-the-man kind of band can be -- when bassist Kim Gordon informed the crowd that hubby Thurston Moore's sister was in the crowd. Guitarist Moore proceeded to dedicate "Sugar Kane" to her ("I love you Sugar Kane," goes the chorus). In the same spirit, opening act Superchunk shrugged off requests for "Slack Mother------" citing a disinclination to use such language in the presence of drummer Jon Wurster's family.

A 40-ish guy in the crowd was seen holding a pair of stuffed animals adorned with Sonic Youth pins that said "Hug me I'm `Dirty." He said he purchased the stuffed animals for his daughters. All of these niceties played in direct contrast to the drag queen that was cruising the lobby -- his linebacker thighs squeezed into a pair of leather hot pants and his 5 o'clock shadow topped with Tina Turner-style frightwig.